Memories of Greg from Singapore LAH

My “threatening (turn up wearing this or else)” party invites never failed to amuse Greg. At our 4th July 2010 BBQ party, one of the rules I set was that everyone had to wear red or blue. Greg scratched his head for a long time to find something red to wear. In the end, I showed up with red toe nails. He was pissed!

Our Thanksgiving parties were also always fun and noisy with the boys fighting for the last piece of pumpkin pie. Greg was upset with Melissa one time when she gave away the last piece of pumpkin pie to Garth. Since then, Melissa had to bake two pumpkin pies for our parties.

At our annual Chinese New Year parties, we always gamble. This was Greg’s favorite part of the party.. I remembered he texted me multiple times to ensure we saved him a seat and we would not began until Greg, the gambling god, arrived. He was really good and quickly became our common enemy because he was winning all our money. We had an ex-colleague who lost a fair bit of money. Greg immediately asked how much she lost and covered all her losses. He was a generous, kind hearted gambler, wannabe.

Greg loved his food. I invited the Kahn’s and the Shibles’ over to try my cooking. Tom made really good black pepper slipper lobsters. While Melissa was in our bedroom with little B, Greg tried to save one and half slipper lobsters for Melissa. Then we started seeing Greg battling internally as to how much to save for Melissa. For every half piece of lobster he took from Melissa, he justified that Melissa doesn’t eat that much. By the time Melissa joined us back for dinner, she ended up with only a half piece of the slipper lobster, but a very contented Gregory Kahn.

I have this silly Inner-Inner-Inner circle (IIIC) where there are really only a few friends under this category. It gets reviewed every now and then. I organized this boat party for Tom’s birthday a few years back and Greg was in HK for 6 months to cover for his colleague. He knew that I wanted him to come back to Singapore for the party. He would not give me a Yes answer for quite some time. We started this negotiation process where he wanted a permanent place in my IIIC, exempt from review. Even though I thought I was a good negotiator, Greg clearly won this round. Just only recently when Greg found out that I made a new friend who happened to be a lawyer as well, he texted me: “She CANNOT be in the IIIC. I am the only lawyer allowed in that esteemed group!” He was right.

Shamala and I always loved to tease Greg. We would regularly put him on the spot, asking him to decide which one of us was better at this, that, or the other. Always quick witted, he’d have a response that satisfied, yet never really taking a side.

While Greg was still based in HK, we all went to HK Rugby Sevens. He was supporting team USA while I was just checking out the cute rugby players. We had tickets only for the first day. I remembered Greg, Tom and I were on the street on the 2nd day and trying to work out the plan to negotiate the best price for tickets. We were formidable and of course we got ourselves a great deal or so we thought.

One of the most beautiful moments with Greg was when he broke the news of Melissa’s pregnancy. We both had tears in our eyes. He told me that Val, you are going to be an aunt soon and I said no, I am going to be a Godma. Since then, he always loved to give me a hard time that Benjamin called Shamala Godma, as well.

Greg was fantastic as an attorney and as our friend. However, he was even better at being Benjamin’s papa.

Greg was the smartest, warmest, most positive and generous, dependable person I feel that I have ever known. He will be missed, but never forgotten.